WASHINGTON ― Vice President JD Vance said a former DOGE staffer who resigned this week after social media posts of him advocating for racism and eugenics were brought to the White House’s attention should be reinstated in his role.

Vance’s call to “bring him back” comes after the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Marko Elez, a 25-year-old software engineer who had been working for Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, resigned after the newspaper inquired about racist comments made on a deleted social account linked to him.

“Here’s my view: I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life,” Vance said in a Friday post on X. “We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back. If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.”

One post from the X account tied to Elez in June reads, “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” according to the Journal, which reviewed archived posts.

“You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” the account wrote in a September post. And in another post the same month, according to the Journal, the account wrote, “Normalize Indian hate,” in reference to another post on the large population of people from India in Silicon Valley.

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Journal that Elez resigned after the newspaper made inquires about the social media posts.

Musk’s DOGE has been rapidly moving throughout the federal government in an effort to slash spending and cut workers.

Vance’s X post came in response to a post by Musk on Friday polling his followers whether the DOGE employee should be brought back. Seventy-eight percent responded yes and 28% no. In other X posts, Musk lashed out at the Journal reporter who reported on Elez’s posts and resignation and said the reporter “should be fired immediately.”

Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.